In India you'll often see milk shops, where the shop keepers will set out huge pots of fresh milk and several small pots of yogurt to sell. You just go to them and tell them what you want and they measure out the milk and yogurt that you want into a pot.
One day two little boys and a dog were standing outside one of these milk and yogurt shops. One boy said, "I wish I had some yogurt for my dog, but I don't have any money". His friend said, "that would cost a lot. I don't have any money either." The boy with a dog said, "well think of something!" And his friend said, "like what?" The boy with a dog said, "the dog should have some yogurt. We must think of a plan." The friend said, "Hummmmm hummm, Hey! I know a way we can get yogurt for your dog, you see that man coming along?"
And sure enough, there was a very tall man marching at a fast pace down the street coming toward them. His friend said, "he seems to be an army man", and the boy asked, "how do you know?" His friend said, "he walks as though he were marching: - left right, left right, left right." And the dog owner said, "what does that have to do with our getting yogurt?" His friend said, "I have a plan, if he buys yogurt your dog will definitely get some yogurt today, but if he buys milk then my plan won't work. Let's wait and see."
The boy with the dog said a prayer, "ok almighty God please make the man buy yogurt." The two boys watched from across the street as the man marched straight up to the counter of the shop and said, "hello how are you? Give me one small pot of yogurt."
The friend whispered excitedly, "Perfect! Your prayer worked, your dog is going to have one pot of yogurt." The dog owner said, "how do you know?" His friend answered, "Well, I don't know for sure, but you did tell me to think of a plan, so I've thought of one, now lets see whether my plan works or not", the owner of the dog said, "look buddy if my dog doesn't get yogurt I'm gonna tell him to take a bite out of YOU!"
His friend said, "look... no threats. Just wait. Let's try my idea and see if it works." And they watched the man buy the yogurt and start to walk away, the two boys ran up behind him and began walking alongside of him in rhythm saying, "left right, left right, left right, left right, left right." Soon, all three were marching down the street at a very fast pace, all in step, saying, "left right, left right, left right." After a few minutes the friend suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "HALT!" and you know, that army man stopped so suddenly that he dropped that pot of yogurt right on the road. And what else could the dog want? Happily he ran over and ate all the yogurt which had spilled onto the street.
The boys looked up at the man and innocently asked, "sir, what happened?" The man looked around confused he said, "I don't know, I just thought I was... never-mind." He started walking back because he wanted to buy another pot. They ran after him and asked again, "sir, what happened?" Still looking somewhat confused, he said, "when you were yelling, left right, left right, left right, I began to feel like I was in the marching squad. I even forgot for a moment where I was or that I had anything in my hands. Then when you yelled HALT, I stopped to stand at attention and I dropped my pot of yogurt, I just felt like I was back in the army."
These boys had tuned into the intellect of that man. They knew that he had such a strong habit of doing marching drills that he would automatically march, just out of habit. He had such a strong habit that in his mind he was totally transformed back to the field where he usually did all his drills.
So remember, habits can be a very strong thing in your life. You need to be careful. Because sometimes as a result of your habits, you end up doing things that you are not even aware of or things that you don't really want to do.